General information: a guide

We will do our utmost to make you feel comfortable and safe during the festival, but a lot depends on our cooperation with you – attendees of the American Film Festival. Below you’ll find a guide to help you find your way around the festival.

Opening hours

Festival center
November 8-13, 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM

• pass-holder costumer service (pass pick-up)
• guest & industry service center
• information

Ticket office
November 8-13, from 9:00 AM till the start of the last screening

• festival ticket office
• collecting tickets purchased online

Booking system opens at 8:30 AM, as per usual

Booking films during the American Film Festival will take place at the usual time: beginning from 8th November, 8:30 AM you can reserve seats for shows on 8th and 9th November and from 9th November, 8:30 AM for the current and following day (e.g. on November 11th, you can reserve seats for shows on that day and November 12th). 

Practice makes perfect: booking system demo

Each festival attendee will receive their login in advance, which they can use to log on to the demo version of the booking system to practice "clicking" on screenings earlier.

Booking stations no longer available at festival venues

We know the feeling: physical hunger wins over cinematic hunger so, to satisfy the former, at the last minute we “click off” a selected screening using one of the public computers in the cinema space and head to our favorite watering hole. However this year we had to give up the computers that allowed us to make and cancel reservations. But there's a silver lining: free WI-FI is available at festival venues and our booking system works efficiently in the mobile version. We encourage you to use your own devices.

Plastic? No, thank you

We know that mass events generate a large carbon footprint. Which is why we strive to reduce the non-ecological, with each subsequent edition of the American Film Festival. One way is to reduce the number of festival tote bags, plastic badges and paper tickets. We encourage you to use digital tickets – digital pass/accreditation is available after logging in by clicking on the profile icon (under "digital pass" button). If your eye catches a person with a printed pass – in most cases it will be someone from the festival’s crew. That way it’s easier to identify the members of our team. We recommend collecting your badge throughout the entire festival (not on the first day), to avoid queues.

Digital pass: reservations and admission to screenings

A printed pass is not required to make a reservation. Just log in at americanfilmfestival.pl and show your digital pass (screenshot or its downloaded version) before entering the screening. Remember to brighten the screen and ensure good quality of the file/screenshot before presenting the pass.

Fewer festival ticket offices – we recommend purchasing tickets online

We encourage you to purchase tickets through our website – the entire sales system is intuitive and easy to use. 

Note! Festival box offices open on November 8, 9 AM at the New Horizons Cinema. Prior to that, the only way to purchase tickets is online at nowehoryzonty.pl.

Audience voting

We will place special ballot boxes in front of each screening room for the competition films. Place your ballots in the boxes after indicating a rating of the film by appropriately tearing the ballot. You can pick up the ballots before entering the screening room. Volunteers and voting coordinators can help in problematic cases.

What should you know about on-site screenings?

As every year, festival attendees are bound by the same rules of participating in film screenings, which will ensure the comfort of both the audience and festival employees:

• Attendees who are late for the film screening will not be allowed to enter – the absolute principle of punctuality applies.
• The venues have unassigned seating.
• We recommend arriving in advance – the screening rooms open at least a dozen or so minutes before the screening.
• The number of printed catalogs is limited – please keep a digital version of the catalog downloaded on your mobile device.
• We recommend that you follow the festival's website. As the event is also attended by people with festival passes, for whom a separate pool of seats is provided, individual places often return for sale. If there are no tickets available for the selected film, on a given day, chances are that individual seats may be up for grabs!

Food, drinks, chilling out

After an entire day of festival impressions, we invite you to the festival club, which this year has found its place at the hospitable Recepcja, in the neon courtyard on Ruska 46c (next to the New Horizons Cinema). Special drinks and musical pleasures will be waiting for all festival-goers. We also encourage you to check the extensive list of  recommended places – many dining options, where you’ll be able to take advantage of special offers and discounts (upon presenting a festival pass, accreditation or ticket).

Special events

Wo/man does not live by film alone. During this year's American Film Festival, other great events await you: Nina Menkes and Joan Tewkesbury masterclasses, Teoniki Rożynek Concert in Mleczarnia (tickets available here) and Silent Twins and other songs. Concert Zuzanna Wrońska feat. Igor Nikiforow in Vertigo (tickets available here).

Please note: The festival pass or accreditation does not entitle you enter concerts.

Festival merchandise

During the 13th American Film Festival, you’ll have a chance to buy festival gadgets (including attendees’ favorite souvenir – the festival tote bag) at the festival ticket offices and publications of the New Horizons Association at the New Horizons Cinema bookstore – Tajne Komplety.